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A judge has ruled that domestic violence evidence will be allowed in the trial of a Rincon woman charged with concealing the grisly death of a Chatham County man. The jury trial of Kimberly Moretz, 43, was set to being this morning in Effingham County Su

UPDATE: Moretz guilty on two counts, not guilty on third

Kimberly Moretz

Kimberly Moretz

Kimberly Moretz

Kimberly Moretz

After deliberating three hours Friday, an Effingham County Superior Court jury found Kimberly Moretz guilty on two counts and not guilty on a third in hiding the death and dismemberment of Charlie Ray.

Moretz was found guilty of concealing the death of another and hindering apprehension or punishment of a criminal. She was found not guilty of tampering with evidence.

Sentencing was set for Feb. 12.

Ray's parents declined to speak with reporters after the verdict.

Charlie Ray's mother left the courtroom in tears Friday morning when the assistant district attorney started talking about her son's torso being left in a storage unit in South Carolina.

ADA Brian Deal said Kimberly Moretz is an accomplished liar. Authorities believe her husband, Chad Moretz, stabbed Ray to death and dismembered his body. Chad Moretz was shot and killed by a SWAT team after an armed standoff at the Moretz house in the Rincon area on Jan. 11, 2013.

Ray’s dismembered body was found at the Moretz house and in a storage unit in Hardeeville, S.C.

Kimberly Moretz, 43, said she was in an adjoining room and heard her husband stab Ray to death and cut up his body with an electric saw.

"When Kimberly Moretz lied to protect her husband during all these domestic incidents, that's one thing," Deal said during closing arguments Friday. "When she lies and protects her husband after he's murdered and dismembered a man in her presence, that's inexcusable. That's a crime."

Deal said Kimberly Moretz brought Ray to the house she and her husband shared, more than once.

“If he’s a lit stick of dynamite, if he’s that murderer waiting to happen, why is he here?” he asked.

“Chad Moretz is beyond earthly justice,” Deal said. “We don’t want to prosecute somebody for the sake of prosecuting them but we do want to hold people responsible for their actions.”

Deal said Kimberly Moretz was able to contact a friend and her brother in Florida for help and should have been able to contact the police for help.

“We saw what happened when the police became aware of what was going on at the Whitehall (Avenue) house,” he said, referring to the SWAT team killing Chad Moretz.

Deal listed for the jury eight lies the defendant told police, including that she had dropped Ray off at a Savannah gas station, when she knew he was dead, “running police up a blind alley.

Defense Attorney Michael Schiavone said during closing arguments that the government repeatedly let down Kimberly Moretz when she was not protected from her violent, mentally ill husband.

"In Effingham County, apparently, it's not important to protect a woman being chased with a machete," he said.

Marti Loring, director of the Center for Mental Health and Human Development in Atlanta, said Kimberly Moretz was terrified of her husband even if he wasn’t beside her, “whispering in her ear.”

She said Kimberly Moretz was afraid that her husband would kill police officers if she asked for help. “Her fear for others would be as great or greater than her fear for her own life,” Loring said.

Deal pointed out that Loring is not a medical doctor and isn’t qualified to prescribe medicine. He asked Loring if there is a lot of subjectivity to her discipline.

She said there isn’t really, that measurable tests are used to make a diagnosis and to make sure that a patient isn’t lying.

She said the defendant wasn’t “crazy,” but that she suffers from anxiety disorders that can be as severe as psychosis.

"She would have done anything that man told her to do whether she was with him or not," Schiavone said in closing arguments.

Schiavone said the state is prosecuting his client because she's the only person left standing. "They feel that somebody has to be held responsible for something," he said.

Testimony in the trial began Wednesday. On Thursday, the defense said Chad Moretz chased Kimberly Moretz with a machete and held a knife to her neck in two separate instances, but was not charged either time.

Investigator Robert McQuaig of the Effingham Sheriff's Office testified that deputies investigated a report that Chad Moretz chased Kimberly Moretz with a machete in July 2011.

No one witnessed the incident and Kimberly Moretz was not injured. Deputies could not find the machete. Kimberly Moretz said her brother, who called the Sheriff’s Office, was lying.

In the second instance, Deputy Ryan Williams with the Sheriff’s Office said a neighbor told authorities in Sept. 2012 that she saw Chad Moretz hold a knife to Kimberly Moretz’ throat.

Chad and Kimberly Moretz denied the incident occurred. Upon further questioning, the neighbor said she overheard the pair arguing but didn’t see Chad hold a knife to Kimberly’s throat.

Chad Moretz was not arrested for assaulting Kimberly Moretz in either case.

Also on Thursday, Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie answered defense questions about a video tape he mentioned during an interview with a local TV station last year.

McDuffie said his officers told him about a video of Chad Moretz taping Kimberly Moretz when she was having a seizure for an hour.

“Apparently he was taking pleasure in watching her have a seizure after he beat her,” Schiavone asked.

“That’s what I was told,” McDuffie replied. The sheriff said he “has no idea” where the video is.

Schiavone said after court Thursday that he hasn’t been able to find the video.

The prosecution said Wednesday that Kimberly Moretz used her maiden name and paid cash to rent the storage unit in South Carolina where most of Ray’s dismembered body was found.

She went to her job at a law office in Savannah for three days after Ray was killed, proving she had ample time to contact authorities about the death, the prosecution contends.

A forensic pathologist testified Thursday that body parts of Ray that were stashed in a storage unit in South Carolina were in four containers.

Dr. Lee Marie Tormos, of the Medical University of South Carolina, said the body parts were the torso, arms, legs and thighs. She said the torso was tattooed with "Ray III" and a skull and had 11 stab wounds.

She said the torso also had a medical device that is used to treat Tourette's syndrome. Ray suffered from Tourette's.

Dr. Edmund Donoghue, a forensic pathologist for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, described doing an autopsy on the parts of Ray that were left in the Moretz house -- his head and hands.

Donoghue said there were 20 wounds to the head and 15 wounds to the hands. The wounds to the hands were defensive wounds, he said.

He said the skull was penetrated with a knife, which took significant force.

Schiavone asked Donoghue if he could tell what law was violated in Ray's death.

"I know enough to know it was a homicide," Donoghue said.

But not enough to know what happened, Schiavone said.

"I know the cause of death was multiple stab wounds and the body was dissected," Donoghue said. He said he believes Ray was dead when the body was cut into pieces.